Terrible! These sparse instructions leave out so many steps, both for safety and for completion of the task, that anyone performing this task for the first time will have no idea what to do.

Thank you, Andrew! You really saved my bacon. My 9 year old MBA was in perfect working order save the charging port. Replacing the i/o board has me up and running again, and within my budget, as I cannot afford to replace my laptop. Your instructions and photos are spot on. I would suggest that it is unnecessary to detach the fan ribbon cable—just flip the fan to the left while removing and installing the i/o board. Doing so would save having to struggle to get that tiny ribbon back into its slot.

I see comments suggesting not to remove the ribbon cable. This would work. Simply flip the fan like the page of a book, from right to left, thereby getting it out of the way while you remove the i/o board. Flip it from left to right when you reinstall. This approach would save some frustration, as it is a challenge to reinsert that tiny ribbon into position.

If you do remove the ribbon, reinsert it before repositioning the fan. That will give you more play as to fiddle with the ribbon.